The East Tennessee State University-led Tennessee Climate Office is preparing to ramp up collaborative research efforts to better prepare local communities for extreme weather changes and events like Hurricane Helene, according to Dr. Andrew Joyner, a member of ETSU’s Department of Geosciences and Tennessee’s official climatologist.
Joyner said the office will soon move its operations into the newly renovated space on 401 Ashe Street, which was recently purchased by the university to serve as a hub for arts, education and community outreach efforts once the university’s lease begins in July. He said the extra space will be useful for students, staff and researchers moving forward as ETSU climate researchers pursue new grants to advance their work.
Joyner said the office is currently preparing to help roll out the state’s Mesonet system, which proposes a network of weather stations across the state to improve weather forecasting and disaster preparedness. The project will make Tennessee the 42nd state to build out such a network.
The network launch comes after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the General Assembly appropriated more than $450 million in direct disaster relief as part of a plan to support ongoing recovery efforts and allow for proactive preparation for future emergencies. The budget includes $275 million to construct a state-of-the-art Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) Emergency Operations Center and $4 million to implement and maintain a Mesonet system to monitor weather-related and flooding threats in the state, according to state officials.
Joyner said climate researchers and others had been pushing to build such a network for the better part of a decade before the governor’s budget was approved. He said the 2021 flooding in Waverly, Tennessee also raised a need among Tennessee lawmakers to build up the state’s weather monitoring capabilities before Helene hit Northeast Tennessee.
“These are really high-quality research-grade weather stations, with one in every county,†he said, adding that ETSU leaders hope to begin work on the project in the fall.
Joyner said the real-time data provided through such a system will be crucial in strengthening emergency preparedness efforts across the state, which will significantly mitigate the impact of extreme weather events like Helene in the years ahead.
“Every five minutes, you’re getting all these data feeds,†he said. “Our hope is that TEMA will purchase the equipment, and then we will be in charge of longterm operations and maintenance, but that contract hasn’t been signed yet.â€
Joyner noted that the office is also hoping to obtain grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to establish a “regional resilience center†with Oak Ridge National Lab that will advance research on flood modeling.
In addition, the university is interested in pursuing grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help conduct a statewide drought impact study.
“It’s a matter of if we are going to have the funds to continue those types of projects,†he said, noting that much of the work is ongoing.
Joyner said the main focus with the office today is to provide data on weather changes that will help keep communities safe, rather than determining all of the exact causes of extreme weather changes.
He said this work will be particularly important as climate scientists expect more frequent weather changes moving forward.
“We just want to provide the best data possible so people can make better decisions, and we just kept that as our core principle. There are other entities across the state that focus more on [advancing science about] climate change,†he noted.
The Tennessee Climate Office at ETSU is one of only nine such sites in the nation selected for a federal program under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aimed at helping communities better understand and utilize climate data to address weather vulnerabilities, according to the university’s website.
